Out Of Time
by theghostchic
Summary: /Contains DH Spoilers/ Harry wonders when it would ever be his name she'd mumble in her sleep, and not that irritable git who deserted them. Another one-shot about our favorite couple with the worst timing in the world. H/Hr


**A/N: Okay, This is just another one-shot experiment I'm trying out. I hope you like it, ****aaannd**** this is set in the DH Chapter when Ron left them at the tent blah ****blah****blah****. So don't read if you haven't read this yet. I warn you, scroll down! Or press back, whatever.**

**Out of Time**

She always mumbled his name at night.

More especially now, since the incident that he decided to turn on his friends in a middle of a conquest to destroy one of the most evil and great wizards of their time, she'd been crying.

Harry was sick of her wailing, but then he somehow couldn't get himself to cast a Silencio charm around him. It was security for him to still hear her voice, and sealing her off since he couldn't take the unbearable pain was exactly what Ron did. She doesn't need another Ron in her life. She needed someone who would never desert her… Who would always try to make her feel better, who couldn't bear to cast a Silencio charm to seal her out. She needed _him._ She needed Harry, and yet when she was too wound up with the wrong guy to even notice. In fact Harry began to wonder if he would ever be a "Ron" to her or needed to act like Ron to get her attention. But no, he would always be "Harry" the person she would be reluctant to support since she was always worried about _him._

Harry gripped the left side of his shirt in hope to stop the churning of his insides and painful beats in the hollow of his ribcage. The horcrux did nothing but encourage his ill thoughts towards Ron, also constrict his lungs so that he began to take in sharp intakes of air to relieve the pain.

"Ron…" was the muffled name she spoke from under the covers. Harry felt himself wince at the invisible knife to his chest. He loved her too much that it hurt, and that it didn't hurt at all.

"I'm s—sorry, really. Oh Ron…" She said.

Harry sighed inwardly, and threw off the covers from his cot, wincing as a gush of cold wind enveloped his once warm body. He then stood, and with heavy and unwilling feet, approached her.

His hand gently shook her shoulder as he crouched down to her level. "Hermione?" He whispered quietly, growing more like the Harry he used to be who worried and cared about her constantly despite how much she was upset about Ron, when he pulled the horcrux's chain from his neck and settled it on the ground next to him. "Hey…?"

Her bloodshot eyes shot open, and she sat up immediately. "H—Harry?"

He smiled warmly at her, "I was worried about you. You were crying in your sleep."

The wetness of her cheek made her aware of that when she rubbed her eyes sleepily. "It's nothing to worry about Harry, probably nothing too serious, I can't remember the dream anyway."

His gaze darkened, "Please, stop crying, Hermione. Ron will come around sooner or later." At the mention of their friend's name, Hermione immediately looked away and sniffed behind the veil of hair covering her face. Harry's cold hand gently cupped her chin to look at him.

"For me?" He pleaded.

Although that wasn't the most tempting offer, he held on to it like it was his beacon of hope that told him to keep going, to keep fighting for her. He held on it like how he would hold on to her. But then he was too selfish, he thought, too many people were sacrificing everything for him, and asking this simple request from her made him feel like a glutton wanting everything within his grasp—but he didn't, he only wanted her to smile and stop crying.

Harry only wanted a few things in his life, he wanted to be a normal kid, and say "for me?" without the feeling that everyone was glaring at him thinking "Hey, we gave him our lives, what else does he want?", it was just unfair, how the world was molded that way. She looked at him for a while, and then nodded.

"Tomorrow we'll rest. Okay? We could probably go somewhere, maybe on a picnic…I could cook some—"

"No, Harry…This is a war the three—two of us are fighting, we don't have time for that." She said stubbornly, lying back down on her cot and pulling the blanket up to her neck.

She put on a lighter and merrier tone, her eyes brightened up and a smile was plastered on her white face. Harry marveled at the transformation, "Stop listening to me when I sleep, Harry. You should listen to me when I'm awake."

He chuckled, "But you always tell the truth in your sleep, that's why I always get you what you want every Christmas, I hear it in your sleep. So naturally the normal reaction is that I get curious, I listen around if it's a new quill you want or a book. Besides, you never shut up, Hermione even when you're unconscious." He heard her melodious laugh ripple from where she lied, and then as it started fading away, he waited a few minutes of silence. Comforted by her slow, steady breathing, Harry gently tucked a stray strand behind her ear, and then headed to his cot and started drifting to sleep.

Harry woke up to the smell of breakfast being cooked and the slow humming of his friend from the kitchen.

"What's for breakfast?" He asked, yawning as he went inside the kitchen, his hair messy and his glasses were askew. He gently opened the book lying on the table, continuing the work he began the other day.

"Some ham Ron brought from the burrow…He left it here." She muttered slowly. He nodded and then staggered to the table, still tired. The horcrux made him feel years older, and more tired. He could sleep for 2 days and still feel like he slept for 12 hours.

"That's one-fourth of the energy you get." Hermione pointed out, sitting across him during breakfast when Harry described to her his tiredness.

"Soon it would be one-eighth." He mumbled, eating a piece of ham which wore his tired jaws down. "The sooner we destroy it, the better."

"And I thought you wanted today to be rest day." Hermione retorted, her arms crossed in front of her, and a small smile resting on her lips.

"I still want it. You've been working more than I have Hermione, you really do deserve it." He said with sincerity.

"Okay then, today's a rest day. And you, Harry Potter, will rest the whole day today. I don't want to see you walking around this tent, and if I do, you better watch out." She told him, a triumphant smile on her face, and her eyes gleamed with the certainty of her victory. He could have been trapped in that moment forever.

"And hand me that horcrux." She ordered, sticking her palm out towards him with her nose high in the air. He followed her grudgingly and gently took the fragment of their rival's soul off his neck and carefully put it in her hand. He couldn't stop smiling at her bossy attitude, but after a moment he allowed himself a fleeting moment to look at her with pity without her knowing. Her eyes were still puffy.

Although days like this did not stop Hermione completely, some days passed that she sobbed incoherent words in her sleep.

Harry was getting terribly sick of it, and continually wished that she would stop saying the same phrases over I again.

"Oh, Ron…" She mumbled once again, and Harry clutched the space over his heart again. He did not know why it pained him so much to watch the person he loved suffer and hide and run away from the whole world. He did not want to see her like this.

"I'm sorry, really…Wait—Ron…"

If only she would stop hurting. If only he would stop hurting for her, because of her, because he was sick of waiting for her.

It was only lonely nights like this that he longed for her to be his and that he would kiss those tears away.

And she was here. But not his, she was Ron's—that was the great boundary line , which consisted of a small gate locked by a rusty padlock and was guarded with barbed wire and electric lines, that prevented him.

The frustrating thought rang in his head, until it was the last thing he thought of before finally drifting off to a state where he could not think, where he could not hear, where he could not comprehend and ultimately where he could not hurt. Sleep invaded him, and he was grateful. Another sob came from where Hermione slept, but he did not hear it.

"I don't love you…Sory…Oh Ron…I'm sorry."

But—yes, there was always a 'but'. If only he had been awake longer, to hear her cry just this moment.

"I love him, Ron…" She whispered in her sleep. "Please understand…"

He would've found the small gate blocking him unlocked.

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**A/N: There you ****go,**** another one-shot of mine. :D Please REVIEW, guys. I'd love to hear from you.**


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